Chocolate Malted Muffins

This recipe would not exist without The Joy of Cooking by Rombauer, Rombauer, and Becker and Dorie Greenspan, whose books introduced me to the idea of baking with malt powder.

Prep time: about 15 minutes. Baking time: 15-20 minutes

Yield: 12 muffins

Please read notes, below, before baking. You will need two large bowls and a twelve well muffin tin to bake these muffins. I always crack eggs into a separate small bowl, lest there be shell pieces or a bad egg.

Bowl one:

12 ounces/1 1/2 cups/400 grams AP flour

1/3 cup/100 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine or sea salt

1 tablespoon unflavored malted milk powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (see notes, below, about dairy)

Bowl two:

1 stick/8 tablespoons/1/2 cup/4 ounces/113 grams unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla or other extract, as discussed below

1/2 cup-1cup/60-128 grams sugar, depending on your preference for sweetness

1 cup/128ml dairy: this can be milk, half-and-half, yogurt, creme fraiche, or heavy cream

3/4 cup/100 grams addition of your choice: chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or dried fruits like currants or cranberries, or frozen berries like cherries or raspberries, blotted dry.

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C

Prepare a 12-well muffin pan either by buttering it lavishly or, as I do, spraying it thoroughly with nonstick vegetable-based spray. I normally avoid this product, but washing muffin pans is a hassle, and the spray I use purports to be organic. I put the pan in the sink while spraying, ensuring easy clean-up. You can also use recyclable paper muffin-tin liners.

In bowl one, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, malted drink powder, and baking soda, if using.

Melt the butter, either stovetop or as I do, in a Pyrex microwave-safe measuring cup. I do it in 10-second bursts, because cleaning exploded butter off the inside of a microwave isn’t much fun.

Once the butter is melted, set it aside to cool.

Now to the second bowl:

Add the cracked eggs, vanilla extract, sugar, and dairy. Mix until just blended. Pour in the butter and stir well–you don’t want scrambled eggs.

Now tip the contents of bowl number one into bowl number two. Add the chocolate chips/dried fruit/nuts, if using, and stir with a large, sturdy spoon or spatula until the muffin mixture is just blended. A few lumps are okay.

Spoon the muffin mixture equally into the wells of the muffin pan and bake 15-20 minutes. Rotate the pan midway for more even baking.

The muffins are done when a tester comes out clean, save going into a chip.

Allow muffins to cool completely on a rack, then remove from pan. Store in cake tin for 24 hours. After that, refrigerate muffins in a ziploc-style plastic bag or other lidded storage container up to four days. Chocolate malted muffins freeze well up to three months.

Notes:

This recipe allows a range of dairy products, from regular milk to yogurt, creme fraiche, half-and-half, and heavy cream. If you use anything heavier than milk, add the baking soda to ensure the muffins rise properly.

While you can use skimmed milk in the recipe, it will result in a dry muffin with a drastically reduced keeping time.

As noted in the post, you may add numerous items to the muffins, including chocolate chips, nuts, and fresh or dried fruits. I added about 3/4 of cup/100 g of chocolate chips to one batch. I left another batch plain.

Nuts are always improved by warming in a low oven or over low heat. Keep a close eye on them, as they go from warmed to burned in seconds.

Malted milk drink mixtures are sold in plain and chocolate flavors. You want the plain type.

You can bake the muffins more or less sweet. If you plan to add chocolate chips or fruit, bear in mind they bring sugar to the recipe.